London Board
Conor Foley, CEO, WorldSpreads Limited and Chairman, IIBN
Conor Foley is the CEO and co-founder of WorldSpreads Group plc., the financial markets trading company with offices in London, Dublin, Europe and the Far East. Prior to launching WorldSpreads, Conor was Chief Dealer with Smurfit Paribas Bank in Dublin, with whom he worked from 1989 to 1998. Conor has been short-listed by Ernst & Young for Entrepreneur of the Year in Ireland three times. He is a director of TiE UK, one of largest networks of entrepreneurs in the world and also serves on the Executive Committee of Co-Operation Ireland, a charity dedicated to promoting better relations between the people of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Conor has a Masters Degree in Economics from University College, Dublin and is a mentor on the London Business School MBA Summer Programme.
Aoife O'Sullivan, Partner, Gates and Partners
Aoife O’Sullivan is a partner in the commercial/private equity department of Gates and Partners in London. She has extensive experience in corporate, asset finance and commercial law. Before joining Gates and Partners, Aoife was a senior associate at Clifford Chance LLP in London in their corporate finance department. She then joined a leading offshore firm in the Cayman Islands where she advised on structuring and implementing local and international securitisations, asset financings, mutual fund and unit trust schemes, and assisted in establishing complex corporate structures with worldwide tax effective outcomes. Aoife provides advice on all aspects of private equity including transactional MBO's, venture capital investments, start-ups, early stage financings, strategic minority interests, restructurings, exit strategies, debt finance and fund establishment and structuring. Aoife also advises clients in aircraft finance and regulatory issues including acquisitions and disposals, financings, airline start-ups, licensing applications and ancillary issues. She has written many articles and spoken publicly on corporate and private jets in the UK and Europe.
Fionuala Pender, Executive Director, IIBN
Prior to joining IIBN in September 2007, Fionuala was the Executive Director of the Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE UK), a global not for profit networking organisation which spans 45 cities in 11 countries. Fionuala headed up two TiE offices in London and Manchester and worked closely with the Board to help drive strategy. During her 4 years with TiE, Fionuala delivered a technology focused tour in India which showcased over 100 technology start up companies in New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. In the UK, Fionuala saw the group triple in membership and corporate sponsorship was gained from 4 key industry sectors. Fionuala also helped to build and deliver a mentoring programme to the growing membership who required business guidance and advice. Fionuala has also worked for Lehman Brothers Investment Bank within its IBD Technology division. Fionuala is a graduate from the London School of Economics, and her first job after graduating was for a London based charity which focused on alleviating poverty in the UK working closely with the European Union.
Damon Oldcorn, CEO, Zebtab Limited
Damon is the CEO of Zebtab Ltd the channel platform that delivers personalised content and advertising to the desktop. Damon has over twenty year's board level experience in the emerging technology markets with considerable time spent in Silicon Valley. He was based in San Jose CA as the CEO of PhoneMe.com which he founded in Wiltshire UK during the dotcom period. Most recently he was founder and CEO of NicheGnat Ltd the Web Conferencing service provider. Damon has a Masters degree in International Business from the University of Bristol, which included extensive study periods at Harvard, MIT and UC Berkeley which focussed on Int negotiation, entrepreneurship and marketing.
Jonathan Grey, Founder & Owner of Ovation Incentives
Jonathan holds a BA Honours degree in Economics and Computer Science from University College Cork.
Andy Rogers, Chairman, Global Shares UK Limited
Andy Rogers is Chairman of The European Marketing Group and principal of Rogers Associates Ltd, a consultancy providing both strategic advice and mentoring support at board level to many European companies. He is an Associate Director of Elior
Geraldine McGrory, Founder McGrory Communications
Geraldine McGrory is the founder of McGrory Communications, a full service Public Relations (PR) agency, which she launched in 2005. She has over 15 years experience in the UK PR industry, developing and implementing bespoke communications strategies to help build and strengthen the reputation and image of companies. Since launching McGrory Communications, Geraldine has worked on a number of high profile national news campaigns with leading brands including: Barclays Capital to support its sponsorship of British explorer Tom Avery both in the UK and the US markets; American Express on its high profile launch of the Red Card; the launch of CEOP (a collaboration between MSM, Microsoft, the Government and The Crime Squad), a nationwide campaign to protect children using the internet, and the launch of insidedivorce.com for publishing house Polyview Media (Finalist PR Week Awards October 2007). Geraldine began her public relations career at Shandwick and subsequently became a Board Director at Hill & Knowlton where she and her team launched and grew the Corporate & Consumer Finance Group into a multi million pound business servicing ‘blue chip’ clients such as: GE, GE Capital, Herbert Smith, American Express, Barclays Bank, Ernst & Young and E*Trade. Geraldine sits on the Executive Committee for the UK fundraising arm of the charity Co-operation Ireland and is Chair of its annual gala dinner.
Michael Burns, Stakeholder Communications
Michael's position at Stakeholder Communications covers an array of clients which include Anglo Irish Bank, Sainsbury's, Invest Northern Ireland and Belfast City Centre Management and Chamber of Trade and Commerce. The Stakeholder Group is one of the longest established all-Ireland agencies in the market. The Group offers a full service integrated communications agency with in-house PR, Public Affairs, Event Management and Graphic Design teams. Prior to moving to Stakeholder Communications, Michael worked with Weber Shandwick Worldwide and worked on a number of clients on an all Island/cross-border basis including: Tourism Ireland; Ernact Crosslinks; IBEC-CBI Joint Business Council. Whilst working with Connect Public Affairs, Michael was also part of the team which succeeded in winning an Institute of Public Relations Excellence Award advising the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) in a successful campaign to amend the Adoption and Children Bill. Michael received an upper second in Politics from The University of Southampton.
John Matthews, Deutsche Bank
John Matthews joined Deutsche Bank in 2007 as a Director in its Private Wealth Management division. Previously, John has worked at major financial institutions including ABN AMRO, Close Brothers and Citibank (now Citigroup). His current role involves coverage of UHNWIs and Family Offices in Western Europe and he works closely with Corporate and Investment Banking colleagues in such areas as Private Placements of debt/equity positions in Real Estate and Private Equity transactions, FX positioning and Hedge Fund portfolio management and structuring. John holds a Masters Degree in Basin Evolution and Dynamics from the University of London (RHBNC, 1992). He is also a graduate of University College Dublin (B.Sc., 1991) and was educated at St. Mary’s College, Dundalk, Ireland. Professional memberships include: Fellowship of the Securities and Investment Institute; membership of the Chartered Insurance Institute and member of the Institute of Financial Planning John is married, with 1 daughter. Personal interests include wildlife photography, history and a mild, but growing aversion to Heathrow Airport. He is a Lifetime member of the NSPCC City Club, a member of the Galapagos Conservation Trust, the American-Ireland Funds, and the Irish Professionals Network. While at ABN AMRO, John was a member of the Bank’s Diversity Committee and Family Network.
Emmett Kilduff, Founder and CEO, cmypitch.com
Emmett is a Business & Law graduate from the University College Dublin. In 1999 he completed a Masters in eCommerce (the first of its kind in Europe) at the Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business. In May 2000 Emmett joined the Credit Suisse First Boston investment banking department. He worked in the Corporate Broking and Equity Capital Markets groups advising UK and Irish corporates including Airtricity, GlaxoSmithKline, The Carphone Warehouse and Moneysupermarket.com. In February 2008 he resigned to focus on his internet start-up. cmypitch.com is a group of online business communities that connects entrepreneurs, investors and service providers.
Paul Crosbie, CEO, The Irish Post
Paul Crosbie was recently appointed CEO of The Irish Post newspaper. Paul’s 22 years experience in publishing started in Cork in 1985 as a commercial artist in The Cork Examiner. He worked in various departments and roles and has an in-depth knowledge of the newspaper process. When The Examiner went national in the late nineties, Paul was promoted to National Sales manager moving to Dublin in 1997, where he built up strong client relationships, especially within the Irish advertising industry. Anxious to spread his own wings, he left the family firm in 2001 and joined RTE. As Commercial Director of Publishing, he was responsible for all revenues, sales and marketing across print, on-line, teletext, SMS and IVR offerings. He was also responsible for the development of Cross Business Unit Initiatives within RTE, across Publishing, TV and Radio. In 2005 Paul left RTE to take over as MD of a magazine publishing firm, Mac Communications, which was one of the leading publishers of magazines in the Irish travel sector and was also a sister company to Lithographic Web Press, which had a client base of the RTE Guide, Smurfit magazine titles and Associated Newspapers. Paul took over the CEO position of The Irish Post newspaper in February 2008, is based in Dublin and commutes weekly.